Bridge of Sighs

Venice is seriously environmentally threatened by monster cruise ships that sail into its centre. Campaigners thought they had a cast-iron assurance from the Italian government that cruise ships would be banned from sailing past St Mark's Square and docking in the historic centre (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/05/angry-protests-in-venice-at-shock-return-of-cruise-ships). It seems easy to promise a ban, when no cruise ships (floating petri dishes?) are sailing due to the Covid pandemic. In spite of the promise, a 92,000 tonne ship, the MSC Orchestra, swanned into Venice to collect 650 passengers for Bari. There was a demonstration against this (by environmentalists and people concerned about damage to the city). There was counter demonstration in favour of the floating hotels (by people who earned their living from the ships and the passengers). It seems that the government promise was dependent on creating alternative docking facilities at nearby Marghera. Needless to say, no building of a terminal or dredging of the necessary channel has taken place. Dredging is also likely to create environmental problems for the Venice lagoon. It looks as if this hasn't been thought through by the Italian government. They were collecting kudos before they had done anything.